Phase 2 Sale of Rugby World Cup Tickets to Commence 10 September

The countdown is on ... from today (9 September 2010) there's only one year to go until Rugby World Cup 2011, and balloted sales for prized tickets are about to enter the second phase.

Rugby fans determined to attend the semi-finals or final games of Rugby World Cup 2011 are already be preparing for their last chance to enter the ballot for semi-finals and final games, which will open on Friday (10 September 2010).

More than 500,000 tickets were sold during the Phase 1 ticketing, demonstrating the strong local and international interest.

Applications for the second phase of Rugby World Cup 2011 ticketing - individual match tickets - will be open for a four-week period on Friday, 10 September.

Tournament organiser Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ 2011), chief executive Martin Snedden has urged fans "to take advantage of this phase as it may well be their last chance to buy tickets until well into next year and also the last chance to enter the ballots for semi-finals and final tickets."

"We have already seen demand outstrip supply for some matches, and advise fans not to leave it too late and to apply during this second phase," Snedden said.

RWC Individual Tickets

Approximately 400,000 individual tickets will be made available in Phase 2 for all matches, except for the semi-finals and the final.

Similar to the first phase, fans may apply for tickets to matches of their choice.

"While tickets will be available for 45 matches, demand to date has been exceptionally strong for matches at Eden Park and the quarter-finals in Wellington and Christchurch," Snedden said.

"We expect that fewer than 2,000 tickets will be available for each quarter-final and the New Zealand v Tonga, New Zealand v France, England v Scotland, and Australia v Ireland matches at Eden Park.

"In addition most tickets within the lowest price category have been snapped up at Eden Park, Wellington and Christchurch."

Phase 1 Ticketing

RNZ 2011 confirmed that overall sales targets were on track after 503,000 tickets worth NZ$76m were snapped up during the first phase which featured Team and Venue Pool Packs as well as tickets to quarter-finals and the bronze final.

"The initial demand for tickets has been very strong, both from fans in New Zealand and around the world, and bodes well for capacity crowds in 2011."

Approximately 100,000 or one fifth of tickets were purchased overseas, with fans from United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Australia and South Africa leading the way. Some 20,000 fans from 85 different countries were successful in their applications.

Rugby Travel & Hospitality, which manages the Official Travel and Hospitality programme, said tickets were in high demand.

"Our global network of Official Travel Agents responsible for selling a wide variety of travel packages to rugby fans from around the world are on track to sell more than 100,000 tickets through the travel programme to just over 30,000 overseas visitors," said Rugby Travel & Hospitality operations director David White. "Current sales indicate we’ll also bring a further 13,500 visitors to New Zealand through the official hospitality programme."

RNZ 2011 expects that orders through subsequent ticket phases, further purchase of Official Travel and Hospitality packages as well as expected arrivals of media, sponsors and officials will see these visitor numbers continue to rise over the next 12 months.

Phase 2 Ticketing

The Phase 2 application period will run from Friday, 10 September until Friday, 8 October 2010. At that stage RNZ 2011 will process applications. Notification of the outcome of each application will be issued on or before 12 November.

RNZ 2011 expects to sell 1.45m of the 1.65m tickets available for sale. Of the 1.65m, Rugby World Cup Ltd currently retains 600,000 tickets for sponsors, teams, travel and hospitality.

All ticket prices for Phase 2 have been adjusted for New Zealand’s GST tax increase which comes into effect on 1 October 2010.

See also: Double Your Rugby World Cup 2011 Ticket Chances with MasterCard

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